Is this proof that 'life after death' exists?

Speculation is always rife around the after life and out-of-body experiences. But now a scientific study gives a big hint that some awareness may remain after death, reports The Telegraph.

Scientists at the University of Southampton spent four years examining 2,000 people who suffered cardiac arrests at 15 hospitals in the UK, US and Austria and found that even when the brain had shut down, awareness was still possible.

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Of those who survived a cardiac arrest, 40% told of 'awareness' while they were technically dead, and before they were resuscitated.

'We know the brain can't function when the heart has stopped beating,' said Dr Sam Parnia, a former research fellow at Southampton University, now at the State University of New York, who led the study.

'But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn't beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped.'

One man was reported to recall everything that happened to him in the hospital, when he was unconscious, and clinically dead for three minutes. 'The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced lasted for,' says Dr Sam Parnia.

The study, which was published in the journal Resuscitation, also found that many who reported these out of body experiences saw a bright light, a golden flash, or the sun shining.